Yeah it's unfortunate that this is just a reality now unless you live way up north. We've had pretty good luck with rinks in Chicago this year, but my outdoor game last Saturday morning was cancelled b/c it was 55 and raining. We did however have a tourney the next day on the same rink as it was 25 with light snow. That's Chicago weather for ya.

I remember when I was a kid (31 now) and it would get cold in November and stay that way all Winter. We would also have snow cover for the entire winter. Chicago has not has measurable snow in close to a year now.

I feel bad for my son who will probably never get to experience winter like I did unless I move.

Same here in MN. We had rain over the weekend and it got up to 40 which killed the rinks. They didn't even bother flooding the rinks until the week of Christmas. Outside the first couple years I played as an adult (5-7 years ago), haven't really been able to play outside much at all.

What I find strange is that we are building indoor rinks with geo-thermal heat pumps to suck the heat out to maintain minus 7C air temp for ice (which somebody decided was best for ice) and not having an ice plant but now have artificial refigeration for outdoor rinks?

All of the ice on our city pond was completely melted on Saturday with our temps in the 50s for a couple of days. Most of it has a layer now except for the corner where the river feeds in, but it'll be a while before we can skate. What little ice there is looks so glassy smooth too, supposed to get some snow later this week that will ruin it.